Dear Roberta:

I was a U OF MICHIGAN/C.S. MOTT CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL " lab rat".  The only contact that I ever had from birth to 18 was the medical staff from that hospital. I only went to the Endo clinic there, I never to a regular doctor or an OB/GYN until recently. Every intern and their" brother" took a turn examining my genitals and then the Endo would come in and do it all over again with interns still standing there. I have nightmares about the ones that did the internal genital exams and only just basic anxiety about the ones that pulled apart and touched my genital area. All those experiences have stayed with me and my feelings about them surface at the most inappropriate times.

I’m sure that there was a geneticist lurking around with the bunch of people that were viewing me. The posse of doctors at the U of Michigan were able to detect that I did not have salt losing CAH but indeed simple virlizing CAH. Also, they were able to find that I didn’t have a 21-hydroxylase deficiency but instead I have the somewhat rarer 11-hydroxylase deficiency.